1880 U.S. Census to be available on CDs June 1 LDS Church News   For the week ending May 26, 2001       The U.S. 1880 Census, the first ever U.S. census published in its complete format, has been automated and the 56-CD-ROM set will be available June 1.       When the record was announced and sold at the recent National Genealogical Association conference, the 500 sets of records then available, limited to one set per person, sold out in two days and was soon put to use.       The census extraction project was started 17 years ago and survived through changing intentions and technologies. After 11.5 million hours of work by dedicated extractors.The record is composed of 35 data CDs, 20 Index CDs and a viewer CD and will sell for $49.       With 50.5 million names, the record has twice as many names as the recently announced Ellis Island Records (24 million names), and has 12 times (6.5 million) as many names of African-Americans as the recently announced Freedman's Bank Records (480,000 names). It is a fully extracted record with every name indexed. It is the first record that covers the continental United States, which then had 38 states, eight territories, excluding only the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma.       The 1880 U.S. Census is the most complete database published by the LDS Church to date and contains each individual's full name, relationship to head of the house, age, gender, race, marital status, occupation, birthplace, and the birthplace of the individual's parents.       Because extractors were faced with interpreting the many kinds of handwriting on the census according to their judgement, there are many spelling variations. To offset this problem, a powerful search engine is included with the CD that makes it possible to find a person through "bits and pieces" and "wild card" searches. Bits and pieces means each category can be in a search. A wild card search is where one or more letters, such as the easily mistaken r, y and v can be replaced by an asterisk. The census also allows viewing of neighboring families. ORDER ONLINE <A HREF="http://www.ldscatalog.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/CategoryDisplay?cgrfnbr=1440461&cgmenbr=1402&RowStart=436660&LocCode=FH">Click here: Family Search Online Distribution Center</A> http://www.ldscatalog.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/CategoryDisplay?cgrfnbr=1440461& cgmenbr=1402&CGRY_NUM=1804&RowStart=1&LocCode=FH ___ from Jane's brain ___